May 7-13: The Mystery Machine

 

Yeah, The Mystery Machine. This thing.

If you haven’t had a chance to ride in one, you should.

And if you don’t have a chance to, don’t worry, triathlon training winds up being like a mystery machine. Why am I slow today? Why was I faster yesterday even though I felt awful? Why am I tired but unable to sleep? Why am I hungrier on rest days than long run days? Why am I biking so much faster and running so much slower than I was in February? How the hell am I supposed to fit these workouts in around the rest of my life?

(Because I ran fast yesterday. Because the awful feeling was just some residual lactic acid that cleared out after a few minutes. Because of all the caffeine I took in to make it through work after a long morning workout. Because of residual glycogen depletion. Because I bike more and run less these days. By setting my alarm for 4 am when necessary.)

Alright, maybe some simple evaluation of readily available information solves a lot of those mysteries. But it’s still confusing, though encouraging, to see myself holding relatively fast speeds on the bike, even on climbs.

It was still one of the big mysteries of the week.

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: 22 miles of morning biking, mostly around Hains Point, with a nice opportunity to chat with Rachel during two laps.

Blew past a group of roadies after she left.

They were doing active recovery after a sprint.

But I still passed them.

SO THERE.

4.5 miles of hilly, traffic-filled biking home after work, followed by 3400 meters of swimming with DCRP before wrapping the day up.

Wednesday: A track workout of 3200-1600-800. Not as fast as I was this winter, faster than I was last fall.

Thursday: 4300 yards of swimming, partially with Allison and Beth, who chased me and made me swim faster. Not a bad deal.

Friday: A little over 25 miles of biking around MacArthur Blvd., partially with Tim and Cory, which meant that I got to show off how much better I am at climbing than I was last summer when Tim took pity on me during a group ride that could have dropped me about 800 times.

And oh, look, TWO REAL RATED CLIMBS.

Topped off with 4000 yards of swimming before I prepped for the main event of the week.

Saturday: An easy 6 mile run on a paved bike trail in Charlotte. Charlotte? Yes, of course I went to Charlotte. In this vehicle, no less.

I TOLD YOU. The Mystery Machine. It’s real.

Sunday: Rest day, since I was stuck at the pool in Charlotte to coach a meet all morning and in the car returning home until 9 pm. I suppose I could have done another 3:30 am treadmill session, but…nah, that’s OK.